You know what is kind of nauseating these days? American politics. Now, I’m not normally one to voice any sort of opinion about politics. In fact, there are two things I’ve always said about politics:

I know enough about politics to know that I know jack shit about politics.

And

I really can’t be bothered to give a care until there is a move away from the 2 party system.

The second point is the one that baffles me the most. For example, the presidential debates went down the other night. No other presidential candidates were even allowed to be present besides the republican and the democrat. While I can understand not wanting to have to give any random politician who dreams of blowjobs from interns while sitting in the White House air time to a national audience, some of these 3rd party candidates have very legitimate ideas for this country. You can’t take every issue and crank out a red or blue solution. Inject some new life into politics, make it less about who is “winning” out of the two parties, and make it more about the betterment of a nation.

And that is where I think things have gotten skewed over the past decades. I sit here, watching these two political parties go at it, mudslinging and trying to tear eachother down, and I think to myself…..”These people don’t care about me.” It’s true! It’s not so much about doing what is best for this country anymore, it’s about doing what is best for their respective party. They will do and say everything they can to make sure that “their side is winning”, and the average citizen be damned. It’s turning into some real Jerry Springer nonsense, and people happen to be lapping it up.

People aren’t helping either. They willingly buy into the “us vs. them” rhetoric. The public will go out and, just like any good sports fan, they buy decals, flags, stickers, clothing, and more to represent “their team.” Just like sports fans, there is no middle ground when it comes to their support. It would be completely unfathomable for a Red Sox fan to pick and chose players to root for from each team during a Yankees game. You support the team in its entirety, and you loathe the rival with every fiber of your being. For the average citizen, politics is much the same way. You can’t respect the other party for anything good they might have done, they are the bad guys and they must be stopped! Any advantage gained by the opposing party must be due to some underhanded tactics, poor play by your own side, or complete bias from the officiating crew. They couldn’t actually outperform your side in any facet, right? Right?!

I sometimes listen to Republican radio, and can’t help but shake my head and laugh. The lens these guys view through are so narrow, it’s a wonder they can see anything at all. The hypocrisy is maddening. “Screw those guys for using the same tactics we do, only WE should be allowed to use those tactics!” The other day, one of them decided to jump all over Obama for having the AUDACITY to be on a magazine cover. “Shouldn’t he be running the country?” the host asked. “How dare he take the economy so lightly as to go and take the time to strut around for a magazine shoot!”

I’m not sure if this particular host managed to stay away from every magazine rack his entire life, but this sort of thing is far from being uncommon. Every president is in or on some magazine eventually (how about GW Bush on ‘Ladies Home Journal in ’04 for example?) and every president takes a good share of vacation days. Why these luxuries that every POTUS enjoys at some point become criminalized is beyond me. No, wait, it makes perfect sense. It’s fine if the president you voted for does it, but you’ll be damned if that other guy dares to even take one day off! The selfish prick. Trying to ruin America one crappy magazine cover at a time.

Now, this sort of narrow minded hypocrisy isn’t unique to the Republican radio. It is just as bad on the other side of the aisle. One of my most frequented sites, Reddit.com, can be severely biased in its support for the Democratic party. Constantly rushing to the defense of those with the same political alignment, and defaming the other party at every turn seems to be the standard these days.

This sort of disconnect is what is wrong with politics right now. People can’t seem to keep the rational part of their brain turned on when discussing this country and those that run it. They can be spoon fed all sorts of rhetoric, and they’ll just lap it up because “their side” said it! And screw what those others guys are trying to say, we all know they’re a bunch of liars…right?!

*Sigh*

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of it all. Until this ‘us vs. them’, saying anything they want as long as it nets votes, petty, and just ugly style of politics becomes a thing of the past, I’ll continue to not give a care.

And I definitely won’t be voting Democrat OR Republican. Until those two learn how to play nice, my vote will be for independents or peripheral parties.